Fuel Cycle Working Groups

Fuel Report

Co-Chair for Utilities: Julien Garrel (EDF)
Co-Chair for Suppliers: Malcolm Critchley (ConverDyn) 
Staff Director: Kaajal Desai

Published since the 1970s, The Nuclear Fuel Report: Global Scenarios for Demand and Supply Availability compiles data from confidential surveys, international agencies and other public sources to produce an authoritative projection of global nuclear fuel supply and demand. Member experts of the Fuel Report Working Group cooperate on the report through six sub-groups. Each focuses on different areas of the fuel cycle and has ownership of different chapters. The next edition will be published in September 2023. 

Demand Sub-Group
Co-Chair for Utilities: Pierre Bertrand (EDF)
Co-Chair for Suppliers: Matt Lichtenwald (Cameco) 
  
Agrees on three scenarios (Lower, Reference, Upper) for future nuclear capacity out to a 20-year horizon and the main assumptions (e.g. load factors) affecting future requirements.
 
Uranium Supply Sub-Group 
Chair: Chris Frankland (Nuclear Fuels Corporation) 

Discusses classification of existing mines, projects under development, and anticipated uranium supply.
 
Conversion Sub-Group
Chair: Pierre Joly (Orano)

Analyses future conversion supply capacities versus demand in this concentrated segment of the fuel cycle. 

Enrichment Sub-Group
Chair: Hongzhao (Rico) LI  (China Nuclear Energy Industry Corp.)
 
Focuses on key questions affecting this area of the fuel cycle including: supply-demand imbalance, underfeeding, tails re-enrichment, various trade issues. 

Secondary Supply Sub-Group
Chair: Rolf Kwasny (Consultant)
 
Examines key trends and the contributions of various sources of secondary supplies. 
 
Fabrication Sub-Group
Chair: Ulf Benjaminsson (Westinghouse Electric Company)

Discusses this dynamic part of the fuel market, analysing future prospects and the impacts of new developments on the fuel cycle as a whole. 

Used Fuel Management  

Chair: Cécile Evans (Orano)
Deputy Chair: Anders Sjöland (Vattenfall)
Staff Director: Aaron Erim 

The mission of this Group is to shape industry positions with a view to engaging in the international debate on sustainable management strategies for the back end of the fuel cycle. The Group also acts as a forum for experts to share good practices and major developments in used fuel management and nuclear waste management.  This Group represents the global nuclear industry in other working groups and international events focusing on used fuel management and fuel cycle options such as the IAEA’s Technical Working Group on Nuclear Fuel Cycle Options.

Transport

Chair: Kurtis Hinz (TAM International)
Deputy Chair: Tony Grange (Westinghouse)  
Staff Director: Serge Gorlin

This Group is a forum for communicating industry developments, exchanging leading practice, and for identifying and resolving issues relating to the shipment of nuclear material. The primary focus of the Group is to address commercial topics relating to the transport of front-end nuclear materials. 

The Group has spearheaded efforts to measure and raise awareness of challenges relating to the denial of shipments of radioactive material. This has helped lead to the creation of an IAEA Working Group on Denials of Shipments, which will run 2023 to 2026. The Group has also held an active dialogue with the insurance industry with a view to increasing policy options for members.  

The Group enjoys strong reciprocal relations with the World Nuclear Transport Institute.

INSAF 

Chair: Marcos Luis Merino (ENUSA) 
Staff Director: Kaajal Desai
 
The International Network for Safety Assurance of Fuel Cycle Industries or INSAF transferred to become a World Nuclear Association Working Group in 2018. The mission of the Group is to exchange safety-related information in order to maintain and develop safety at nuclear fuel cycle facilities. It also encompasses informing the wider nuclear industry about safety relating to fuel cycle facilities, providing assurance to stakeholders, and input in the development of global nuclear safety standards. Areas of focus for INSAF are: safety regulation; safety design; safety control; training; accident/event Information; support systems between members in the event of an accident; public acceptance.